It is official: The 2018 AL Wild Card Game will be played in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees clinched the top wildcard spot and thus homefield advantage over the Athletics with an 11-6 win over the Red Sox in Friday night’s series opener at Fenway Park. Third time in four years the AL Wild Card Game will be in the Bronx. Hopefully the 2018 game is more 2017 than 2015. The Yankees are 99-61 and on the verge of their first 100-win season since going 103-59 in 2009.

(Presswire)

Another Big Early Lead
At one point spanning the ninth inning Wednesday through the fourth inning Friday, the Yankees scored 24 runs in 14 innings. They scored four runs in the failed ninth inning comeback Wednesday, a dozen runs in Thursday’s win, and eight runs in the first four innings Friday. The offense is clicking.

Gary Sanchez gave the Yankees an early 1-0 lead with a long second inning home run over the Green Monster. Eight homers in 17 career games at Fenway Park for Sanchez. Later in that inning Aaron Judge worked a walk, Aaron Hicks grounded a single to left, and Giancarlo Stanton muscled a broken bat single to center to score another run. All that happened with two outs and gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Let’s annotate the play-by-play for the six-run fourth inning:

(1) A record-tying double, this was. Miguel Andujar hammered a ball off the Green Monster for his 44th double of the season, tying Joe DiMaggio’s franchise rookie record. Fred Lynn holds the American League rookie record with 47 doubles in 1975. That is definitely within reach the next two days, especially at an extreme doubles park like Fenway. Johnny Frederick holds the MLB rookie record with 52 doubles in 1929. Can’t see that happening. Tying DiMaggio is cool. Breaking DiMaggio’s record would be even cooler. Breaking Lynn’s record would be the coolest.

(2) There’s a lot going on here. First, Gleyber Torres tomahawked an elevated fastball (it wasn’t in the zone) to center field and I thought it was a home run off the bat. So did Torres. He casually flipped his bat aside and jogged out of the box. Then, when he realized it was going to stay in the park, he picked up the pace and slid into second base, and appeared to jam his left wrist. He was flexing it but did remain in the game.

And secondly, the double scored two runs, the second of which was Sanchez chugging around from first base. He didn’t slide and was called safe because catcher Blake Swihart didn’t hang on to the ball. It popped out of his glove as he attempted the swipe tag. (I’m not sure he ever tagged him with the glove anyway.) Sanchez was called safe, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora appealed to home thinking Gary did not actually touch home plate. It looks like his toe got the plate …

… but Cora appealed, and after home plate umpire Laz Daz signaled safe, the Red Sox challenged. The call stood. Sanchez was safe and the run scored. Catchers usually aren’t the most graceful sliders to start with and Sanchez has been on the disabled list with groin trouble twice this season. I’m okay with the non-slide there. He did almost miss the plate though. That would’ve been bad. Also, Gleyber’s slide at second base was completely unnecessary. The throw went home. Not the best inning on the bases for the youngsters. But, two runs scored, and it all worked out okay.

(3) Another bad slide. This one was necessary though. Andrew McCutchen plopped a single into shallow left — he fell behind in the count 0-2 and still saw six pitches — and Torres scored from second base on the play. He slid headfirst and reached around Swihart to touch the plate with his left hand. It was very similar to the slide that tore his elbow ligament and sent him for Tommy John surgery two years ago. Very similar. My heart skipped a beat. Fortunately Gleyber got up right away and was fine. Phew. Between the slide at second and slide at home, I am totally cool with Torres not sliding the rest of the regular season. The kid does a lot of things incredibly well. Sliding isn’t one of them.

(4) This is one of my favorite home runs of the season. Not only did it give the Yankees a commanding 8-0 lead, but Hicks didn’t even think he hit it out. He threw his bat in frustration and put his head down in disappointment out of the box. Then it carried into the bullpen and he laughed at himself as he trotted around first base. Here’s the video. Watch it for Hicksie’s reaction, if nothing else:

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That was a 398 foot homer! Imagine being so convinced you didn’t get enough of it that you throw your bat and look at the ground only to have the ball carry 398 feet. Pretty crazy. Thanks to the Yankee Stadium short porch, we’ve seen plenty of “damn I just missed it oh hey it carried out” homers over the years. Can’t imagine it’s happened often with home runs into the bullpens at Fenway Park though. Little League ballpark, joke dimensions, etc. etc.

(5) The final out of that six-run fourth inning was a Didi Gregorius fly ball to the warning track in right field. It was an out, sure, but it was solid contact. This was Didi’s first game back from his wrist trouble and he hit the ball hard all night. He hit the ball hard and in the air four times in his five at-bats:

First at-bat: Grounder to second (no Statcast data)

Second at-bat: 93.3 mph exit velocity and 328 feet to center (caught)

Third at-bat: 88.3 mph exit velocity and 320 feet to right (caught)

Fourth at-bat: 93.5 mph exit velocity and 275 to left (single)

Fifth at-bat: 102.2 mph exit velocity and 368 feet to right (caught)

The grounder to second was a fairly routine play. Gregorius made good contact in his other four at-bats and he was on the pitches he should’ve been on. We’ll see how Didi and his wrist feel when he wakes up Saturday. Hopefully good. Overall though, I thought his return to the lineup was very encouraging. Couldn’t really tell he missed time with a wrist problem, even only a few days.

(Presswire)

One Bad Inning Happ-ened
An excellent start turned into a meh start in a hurry for J.A. Happ. He retired the first nine batters he faced and allowed only a walk and a ground ball single through five scoreless innings. Only 67 pitches through five innings too. If the Yankees are basing the Wild Card Game starter decision on “who pitched the best most recently,” Happ had put himself in position to be the frontrunner no questions asked. He had a big lead and he was cruising.

The Red Sox finally broke through in the sixth inning. Mookie Betts singled to left with one out and Andrew Benintendi doubled over Hicks’ head in center. Hicks got turned around and let a catchable ball go over his head. The Red Sox had runners on second and third with one out. The Yankees still had an 8-0 lead. Happ got J.D. Martinez to pop up in foul territory wide of first base for the second out, which was a relief. Martinez is so damn good.

Two bad things happened after that. One, Happ walked Xander Bogaerts on four pitches to load the bases. Eight runs is a comfortable lead but not really in Fenway Park. Can’t give ’em free baserunners. And two, wow did Happ groove a first pitch fastball to Steve Pearce. This is why you don’t automatically take the first pitch after the pitcher walks the previous batter on four pitches:

Middle-middle at 94 mph. The Yankees are up 8-0 and Happ just walked Bogaerts to load the bases. He doesn’t want to start nibbling and give the Red Sox more free baserunners. So he threw the get-me-over fastball and Pearce hit it over the Green Monster for a grand slam. He is hitting .750/.890/2.459 against the Yankees this season, give or take. (Actually .281/.395/.719 going into this game.) Suddenly the 8-0 lead became an 8-4 lead. Harrumph.

Happ’s final line: 6 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K on 88 pitches. His line looked a lot better before that sixth inning. Hicks did Happ no favors on Benintendi’s double. Happ did himself no favors with the walk to Bogaerts. Chad Green was warming in the sixth and I’m assuming that, had the score been closer, he would’ve been in the game to face Pearce (who then gets lifted for pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland?). With a big lead and Happ pitching well overall, Aaron Boone gave his a starter a chance to get through the inning. Happ doesn’t get that chance in the postseason.

Home Run History
The Pearce grand slam cut the lead to 8-4 and, thankfully, the Yankees responded right away. American hero Luke Voit slugged an opposite field solo home run into the bullpens with one out in the top of the seventh to give the Yankees a 9-4 lead. It was also the team’s 263rd homer of the season. Bogaerts let a Sanchez ground ball get through his legs later in the inning to let another run score. Should’ve been an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Instead, no outs recorded and a 10-4 lead.

Home run history was made in the top of the eighth. Judge socked a solo dinger to center against lefty Bobby Poyner to tie the 2018 Yankees with the 1997 Mariners for the most home runs in a single season in MLB history. It was No. 264 on the year. Here’s the record-tying homer:

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The Yankees fell off the home run record pace for a little bit while Judge was sidelined and Stanton went through his recent slump, but, including Friday, they’ve hit 30 home runs in their last 14 games (!) to tie the record. That is bananas. Still two games to go too! They might get to 270 homers before the end of the weekend. Here’s the single-season home run leaderboard:

2018 Yankees: 264 and counting

1997 Mariners: 264

2005 Rangers: 260

2010 Blue Jays: 257

1996 Orioles: 257

More important than the home run record is the guy who hit it. The homer was Judge’s first since returning from his wrist injury. Going into this game he was 7-for-34 (.206) in ten games back from the wrist injury and his average exit velocity was way down at 87.1 mph. That is very un-Judge-like. He did have a real good swing Thursday in Tampa that resulted in a fly ball to the warning track (video), and Friday night he went deep to the pull side of center, so hopefully that means Judge is regaining his timing. Hooray for homer history and hooray for Judge showing some pop. I was hoping he’d hit one out before the season ended, just to remind us he can.

Nine Outs To Clinch
With a six-run lead (and later a seven-run lead) and nine outs standing between the Yankees and homefield advantage in the Wild Card Game, Boone went to his best bullpeners rather than try to piece things together with September call-ups. And that is exactly what he should’ve done. Take care of business and get homefield advantage clinched. Everything that happens this weekend after clinching is meaningless.

Green was warming up in the sixth and he went through the bottom of the order 1-2-3 in the seventh. Boone went to Dellin Betances to face the top of the order in the eighth — Boone’s been doing that regularly the last few weeks, using Betances against the other team’s best hitters — and he ran into some problems. Two walks and two singles gave the Red Sox a run and trimmed the lead to 11-5. Torres made a nice lunging catch on Eduardo Nunez’s line drive to leave the bases loaded and prevent further damage.

Zach Britton came in for the ninth inning and I thought it would be Aroldis Chapman only because he’s pitched every other day since returning from the disabled list and he was lined up to pitch in this game. I wonder if the Yankees are planning to have Chapman pitch Saturday and Sunday just to give him a chance to throw back-to-back days before the postseason. Two days of rest before the back-to-backs then two days of rest after? Or maybe they’re just staying away from him because he hasn’t been good against the Red Sox (16 runs in 16 innings as a Yankee)? I doubt it’s the latter.

Whatever it was, Chapman did not pitch the ninth inning (he eventually warmed up though). Britton came in and walked leadoff man Ian Kinsler on four pitches. Never easy, eh? Andujar then double clutched on Sam Travis’ potential 5-4-3 double play ball and only record the out at second. Gregorius then bobbled a potential 6-4-3 double play ball and his hurried toss to second was wide of the bag. Not only was everyone safe, the runners also moved up to second and third. Like I said, never easy. An ALDS matchup between these two teams will be the death of me.

Britton walked pinch-hitter Christian Vazquez — the Red Sox were subbing out some of their regulars late in the game — to load the bases and walked Bogaerts to force in a run. Three walks in the inning for Britton after two walks in his previous 17.2 innings. At this point, two things had happened. One, eight of the last 13 Red Sox batters had reached base and that is capital-B Bad. Imagine if Boston hadn’t gone 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position likely the unclutch chokers they are. (Or do we only do that for the Yankees?)

And two, Britton had gotten five outs in the inning. Two actual outs (Travis’ fielder’s choice at second and a Benintendi pop-up) and three hypothetical outs (the back-end of Travis’ would-be 5-4-3 double play and the 6-4-3 double play Didi threw away). The sixth out came when Pearce grounded out to third with the bases loaded to end the game. It was not routine. Andujar has to lunge for it and make an off-balanced throw to first. Good grief. I will enjoy stress-free baseball the next two days.

Let’s not do that again, Zach. (Presswire)

Leftovers
Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit. Judge (single, homer), Hicks (single, homer), Stanton (two singles), and Sanchez (homer, double) had two hits apiece. Voit (homer, walk) and Andujar (double, walk) reached base multiple times as well. As a team, the Yankees are hitting .263/.353/.535 in their last ten games. Seems good.

And finally, the Yankees have now clinched everything they can clinch. They’ll be the home team in the Wild Card Game, the road team in the ALDS and ALCS, and the home team in the World Series. The rules say a wildcard team can’t have homefield advantage in the LDS and LCS regardless of record. They can have homefield advantage in the World Series though, and the Yankees have clinched a better record than every National League team. Everything’s in the bag. The only things left to do this weekend are set the single-season homer record and win that 100th game.

Up Next
The second-to-last game of the regular season. The Yankees and Red Sox will back at it Saturday afternoon with the middle game of this three-game series. That’s a 1:05pm ET start. Hooray for that. Lance Lynn and Nathan Eovaldi are the scheduled starting pitchers for that one.

Mark this one down as one of the best games of the season. It wasn’t a thrilling comeback or anything like that, but damn, that was satisfying. The Yankees blew the Rays out 12-1 in the four-game series finale Thursday afternoon and it got a little salty. At 98-61, the Yankees have their most wins since their 103-59 championship season in 2009.

(Getty)

Teammates Are More Important Than Half-A-Million Bucks
CC Sabathia cost himself $500,000 by sticking up for his teammate Thursday afternoon. Andrew Kittredge threw behind Austin Romine in the sixth inning (more on that in a bit), then, in the next half-inning, Sabathia drilled catcher Jesus Sucre with his first pitch in retaliation. Obviously intentional. Sabathia was immediately ejected and, on his walk to dugout, he pointed to Kittredge and the Rays dugout and said “That’s for you, bitch.” What a badass.

Sabathia was in total control Thursday afternoon. Five scoreless innings on 54 pitches. He retired the first eleven batters he faced and allowed just a single against the shift and two hit-by-pitches, one of which was intentional. He went into this game needing seven innings to trigger a $500,000 bonus, and, given the score and his pitch count, Sabathia was well on his way to pocketing half-a-million bucks Thursday. Instead, he threw at the first batter possible to stick up for his teammate. He is the man. Imagine not wanting the Yankees to give this guy one-year contracts until he decides to hang ’em up.

On the mound, Sabathia looked as good as he’s looked at any point this season. He had it all working. Inside cutters and backdoor sliders to righties, inside sinkers and sweepy sliders to lefties, and elevated heaters for swings and misses. His swing-and-miss pitch locations:

All elevated fastballs. Sabathia was masterful. Five strikeouts, eight swings and misses among his 55 pitches, and a 74.9 mph average exit velocity allowed. There have been over 4,000 individual player games this season in which a pitcher allowed at least ten balls in play. In this start, Sabathia had the 15th lowest average exit velocity among those 4,000+ games. Give him the $500,000 anyway, Yankees. You can afford it.

A Big Early Lead
After that disappointing loss Wednesday night, the Yankees came out in the best way possible Thursday afternoon. They put a hurtin’ on opener Jaime Schultz* and took a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Brett Gardner opened the game with a double to right that came two pitches after it appeared he struck out. He reached out to foul off a curveball, and initially I thought Sucre caught the foul tip. Replays showed it hit the ground, so the at-bat continued, and Gardner doubled.

* Isn’t the point of the opener strategy to use a *good* pitcher against the top of the lineup? Schultz went into this game with a 4.55 ERA (4.94 FIP) in 29.2 big league innings and a 5.75 ERA (3.83 FIP) in 36 Triple-A innings this year. I dunno. Doesn’t seem like someone you want facing the top of the order.

Schultz walked Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton back-to-back with one out, then the Tampa battery gifted the Yankees a run. With Neil Walker down in the count 0-2, Schultz bounced a curveball, Sucre let it slip through his legs, and Gardner trotted home on the wild pitch. It also moved the runners up to second and third with one out. Walker struck out and couldn’t get a run in, but Miguel Andujar picked him up. The three-run bomb:

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No idea how Andujar kept that ball fair. That’s a backup slider that looked off the plate inside, yet Andujar was able to wrap it around the left field foul pole for a three-run home run and a 4-0 lead. He’s up to 72 extra-base hits on the season (43 doubles, 27 homers, two triples). That is tied for 14th most in baseball with Nolan Arenado, Nick Castellanos, and Matt Chapman. It’s the third most extra-base hits by a rookie in franchise history, behind Joe DiMaggio (88 in 1936) and Aaron Judge (79 in 2017).

The Yankees jumped out to a 4-0 lead and they added to it in the fourth inning. Gleyber Torres singled, moved up on a wild pitch, and Romine brought him in with a single. Adeiny Hechavarria reached on an infield single, Gardner moved the runners up with a ground ball, Judge brought Romine home with a sacrifice fly, and Voit doubled in-and-out of Mallex Smith’s glove in center for another run and a 7-0 lead. Including the ninth inning Wednesday, the Yankees scored 13 runs in the span of five innings against the Rays.

Piling On
I suppose this is where I explain Sabathia’s ejection. He grazed Jake Bauers with a fastball in the bottom of the fifth, and Kittredge, being the joke that he is, decided to throw a first pitch fastball behind Romine’s head in the next half-inning. Romine was not happy, understandably, and Sabathia stormed out of the dugout before Aaron Boone cut him off. Garbage move by a garbage pitcher and a garbage organization.

The Rays are eliminated, Kittredge sucks, and the postseason is less than a week away. I didn’t want the Yankees to start a brawl. The Yankees had nothing to gain and a lot to lose. Sabathia did what he had to do and that was that. But, before Sabathia could drill Sucre, the Yankees torched Kittredge for four runs in that sixth inning, after he threw behind Romine. The inning went strikeout, infield single, triple, sacrifice fly to the warning track, homer, homer, fly out. Voit and Stanton went back-to-back.

The four-run sixth inning gave the Yankees an 11-0 lead. Stanton added a solo shot in the ninth. The Yankees scored 32 runs in the four-game series. It’s the most runs they’ve scored in a series in Tropicana Field since September 2005, when they scored 32 runs in a three-game set. Also, the Yankees secured their first series win in Tropicana Field since September 2016. (They beat the Rays in a road series last September, but that was the alternate site series at Citi Field.)

Leftovers
Unless the Yankees use him in relief this weekend (can’t see it), Sabathia’s regular season is over. He finishes with a 3.65 ERA (4.16 FIP) in 153 innings. Pretty awesome season for the big man. Also, he finishes the year with 2,986 career strikeouts. He’ll have to wait until next April to become the 17th member of the 3,000 strikeout club. Only Randy Johnson (4,672) and Steve Carlton (4,136) have more strikeouts in history among southpaws.

Twelve runs on 13 hits and four walks for the Yankees. Gardner (double, triple), Voit (single, double, homer), Stanton (two homers), Andujar (single, homer), and Hechavarria (two infield singles) all had multiple hits. Stanton had two walks and Voit and Gardner had one each. Voit and Stanton, the 3-4 hitters, went a combined 5-for-6 with a double, three homers, three walks, five runs scored, and four runs driven in. That’ll work, gentlemen.

Luis Cessa tossed three innings following Sabathia’s ejection and allowed a garbage time solo home run to C.J. Cron. I couldn’t possibly care less about that. Jonathan Loaisiga handled the ninth. The regular late-inning relievers all got the afternoon off after working pretty heavily the last week or so. Good game all around.

And finally, Stanton’s two home runs gives the Yankees 24 individual multi-homer games this season, tying the record held by the 1961 Yankees and 1966 Braves. Also, the Yankees are up to 260 homers on the year. That is the second highest single-season home run total in baseball history. The list:

1997 Mariners: 264

2018 Yankees: 260 and counting

2005 Rangers: 260

2010 Blue Jays: 257

1996 Orioles: 257

The Yankees have three games to hit five home runs to break the record. Doable. Definitely doable. I hope they get it done this weekend. It’d be cool as hell.

Up Next
The final series of the 2018 regular season. The Yankees are going to Boston for a three-game weekend set. The Red Sox have already clinched everything they can clinch. The series is meaningless for them. The Yankees still need to clinch homefield advantage in the Wild Card Game. The magic number is one. Lefties J.A. Happ and Brian Johnson are the scheduled starting pitchers for Friday night’s series opener.

So close to a thrilling comeback. Instead, it goes into the books as an 8-7 loss to the Rays. Drat. The magic number for the top wildcard spot remains two as of this writing. It could drop to one pending the outcome of the Athletics vs. Mariners game out on the West Coast.

(Getty)

A Good Start, A Bad Start
Wonderful start to the game. Andrew McCutchen led off the top of the first with a single, Giancarlo Stanton worked a two-out walk, and Neil Walker smashed a three-run dinger over the center field wall for a quick 3-0 lead. I was watching Kevin Kiermaier in center and, at first, it looked like the ball would sail over his head. Then he slowed down and made it seem like he was in position to make the catch. And then he watched it go over the wall. Hooray.

Masahiro Tanaka gave it all back immediately. Three runs in the top of the first and three runs in the bottom of the first. It was a mess of a bottom of the first too. So much went wrong. Let’s dissect that inning with annotated play-by-play. I usually save this for offensive innings, but that inning deserves it.

(1) For the second straight start Tanaka’s splitter seemed to move more side-to-side than down and out of the zone. The Mallex Smith leadoff single came on a 1-1 splitter that went left-to-right, and he poked it into left field. Smith then stole second and Tanaka walked Matt Duffy on five pitches. Two of the five pitches were splitters that didn’t dive. Just like that, the Rays had two on with no outs.

(2) Joey Wendle’s run-scoring single was a ground ball back up the middle and it did not come on a splitter. Tanaka was ahead in the count 1-2 and he gave him a fastball. A 91 mph heater that wasn’t elevated enough, and Wendle shot it back up the middle. One run in, two runners on base, no outs. Not good! At least Tanaka was able to strike out the molten hot Tommy Pham — Pham came into this game hitting .344/.441/.617 (189 wRC+) in 34 games with the Rays after coming over from the Cardinals at the trade deadline — for the first out, so that was good.

(3) Tanaka is an excellent defensive pitcher. One of the best I’ve ever seen. He’s as sure-handed as they come and he generally makes very good decisions in the field. But I have absolutely no idea what he was thinking on this play. Look at this. Just look:

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File that under “trying to do too much.” Tanaka had no play at second base — no easy play at second base, I should say — and he should’ve flipped the ball over to first base for the second out of the inning. It seemed obvious as the play was unfolding. Tanaka’s throw sailed into center field, a run scored, and the runner was able to move up to third. The win probability numbers real quick:

Tanaka gets the out at first (runners on second and third with two outs): 59.2%

Tanaka does what he did (run in, runners on the corners with one out): 48.6%

That’s a pretty big win probability swing in the first inning! Anyway, Tanaka’s error was his first fielding error in MLB. For real. He made one error in his first 820.1 innings with the Yankees and it wasn’t a fielding error. He threw away a pickoff throw in 2016. Bad time for Tanaka’s first fielding error as a Yankee. I guess there was never going to be a good time for it, but this was especially bad. (Tanaka made a similar play on a bunt later in the game and got the out at second, and also successfully started a 1-6-3 double play, so he didn’t shy away from throwing to second base after the error.)

(4) If this were the Wild Card Game, I’m pretty sure the bullpen would’ve been going after Wendle’s single and Tanaka would’ve been out of the game after the error. That’s my guess. It’s not the Wild Card Game though, so Tanaka remained in, and he lost Kiermaier to load the bases with one out. Got ahead in the count 0-2, couldn’t get him to bite on a low splitter or an elevated fastball, then he hit him in the foot with a slider. Groan. Kiermaier left the game an inning later with a hairline fracture in his foot, the Rays say. Ouch. That was a costly hit-by-pitch.

(5) This was not going to be an easy play, but, once again, Miguel Andujar’s slow transfer cost the Yankees in the field. Willy Adames hit a chopper to third, Andujar had to back up a bit to field it cleanly, then he double clutched and Adames beat the throw. The YES Network had a great replay from the outfield that showed Andujar field the ball, get himself into throwing position, unnecessarily double clutch, and then throw to first.

That little hesitation cost the Yankees an out. A run scored to tie the game and the bases remained loaded with one out. Tanaka was able to strike out Jake Bauers and Nick Ciuffo to escape the inning and prevent further damage.

Tanaka settled down after the first inning but not really. He retired ten of the final 13 batters he faced and one of the baserunners was a Pham leadoff home run in the third inning. Another was Brandon Lowe’s leadoff single in the fifth to end Tanaka’s night. I hate hate hate going batter-to-batter. Jonathan Holder had been warming up since the first inning. Let him start the inning clean! Bah. Joe Girardi went batter-to-batter all the time and it drove me nuts.

Tanaka’s final line: 4 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K on 80 pitches. What does this mean for the Wild Card Game? Beats me. I’d like to think the Yankees aren’t going to make the Wild Card Game starter decision based on who pitched the best most recently, but who knows. Unless the Yankees do something weird and unexpected like use Tanaka in relief over the weekend or start him on short rest Sunday, his regular season is over. He finishes with a 3.75 ERA (4.01 FIP) in 156 innings.

Too Little, Too Late
In the middle innings, the Yankees had their best chance to make this a game in the fifth. McCutchen worked a one-out work and Aaron Judge followed with a one-out single. Luke Voit had a marvelous battle with hard-throwing righty Yonny Chirinos. He swung through two inside two-seamers for a quick 0-2 count, then went ball, foul, foul, ball, foul, line drive single to center. Chirinos was throwing 95 mph bowling balls. His fastball was running all over the place. It was a great at-bat by Voit.

The problem? McCutchen got a poor read on the line drive single and initially retreated to second. He advanced to third on the play but should’ve scored from second on the single to the tie game 4-4. McCutchen’s been so good with the Yankees. So, so good. That was his first real glaring mistake. Sure enough, with the bases loaded and one out, the next batter (Stanton) grounded into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. One of those games.

After David Robertson (and Justus Sheffield) let the game get out of hand in the eighth, the Yankees of course made things interesting in the ninth. Very interesting. A walk (Gary Sanchez) and two singles (Brett Gardner and McCutchen) loaded the bases with one out. Judge shot a single over Adames at shortstop to score one run and bring Voit to the plate as the tying run. Voit almost tied the game. Almost. It looked damn good off the bat.

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Smith couldn’t make the catch at the wall — that would’ve been a spectacular catch — and two runs scored. Judge had a tough time reading the play as he rounded second base, so he held up a bit, and that forced Voit to retreat back first. That was not nothing. Voit represented the tying run and he couldn’t move into scoring position. Stanton, the next batter, hit a grounder to third that Wendle tried to turn into a 5-4-3 double play, but couldn’t. The throw was wide of the bag and everyone was safe. Judge scored and the Yankees were down just 8-7.

At this point the Yankees had runners on first and second with one out. Due up was not Walker. It was Tyler Wade. Wade pinch-ran for Walker earlier in the game, after Walker was hit by a pitch when the score was tied 4-3. (X-rays on Walker’s shin came back negative.) Wade battled Sergio Romo for eight pitches but eventually flew out to right. Andujar then hit an anticlimactic foul pop-up wide of third base on the first pitch to end the game. The tying run was left at third. Back-to-back three-run half-innings at the start of the game and back-to-back four-run half-innings at the end of the game.

Leftovers
Aside from the whole batter-to-batter thing, I loved the way Boone used his bullpen. The Yankees were down one and he went to his late-inning relievers. Holder pitched the fifth, Chad Green pitched the sixth, Aroldis Chapman pitched the seventh, and Robertson pitched the eighth. Robertson’s (and Sheffield’s) bad inning proved costly. Green was especially dominant. In fact, in his last two outings, he threw 26 fastballs, opponents swung at 15 of them, and they missed on eleven (!). Golly.

Greg Bird has been relegated to decoy status. With a runner on first and two outs in the sixth inning, Bird was announced as a pinch-hitter for Adeiny Hechavarria against righty Chaz Roe, and the Rays countered with southpaw Jose Alvarado. Gleyber Torres then pinch-hit for Bird. It didn’t work (Gleyber struck out) but it was the right idea. The Yankees got the more favorable matchup. Bird has two starts and three pinch-hitting appearances in the last 26 games (ten plate appearances). He is a non-entity.

And finally, Walker’s home run was the 256th home run of the season for the Yankees. That is the fifth highest single-season home run total in history and eight short of the record held by the 1997 Mariners. Can the Yankees hit nine home runs in the final four games to break the record? It won’t be easy, but it is definitely doable.

Up Next
The Yankees’ last game in Tropicana Field until next season. Thank goodness. The Yankees and Rays will wrap up this four-game series with a 1pm ET game Thursday. CC Sabathia is making his final start of the regular season in that one. Actual starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow will be on the bump Jaime Schultz will be the opener for Tampa.

The Yankees now have 97 wins for the season. That ties 2011 for their most since 2009, and we still have five more games to go. It’s remarkable to think that this could be the winningest team since the latest championship considering not a lot of things clicked in the cylinder this year. Anyways, just like last night, it was a relatively easy one. The offense set the tone in the third by pushing across 7 runs off the Rays bullpen. Luis Severino had a good outing – not necessarily classic Severino one – that gave enough reasons to be optimistic moving forward. The Yankees’ magic number for clinching the home spot for the AL Wild Card game is now at three.

(Getty Images)

The seven-run third

The Yankees pretty much put the game away in the third with a big, seven-run inning against the Rays:

Here are a few notes:

All the good rallies start with the soft-hitting defensive shortstop. To lead off the inning, Adeiny Hechavarria got a fastball low inside corner and golfed it just above the left field fence for a solo homer. A backup shortstop breathing life into the offense is pretty cool, but how about John Sterling’s call?

The beat didn’t stop there. Brett Gardner followed it up with a triple down the first base line and Andrew McCutchen walked to put runners on corners. Up came Aaron Judge and he hit the hardest liner (109.0 mph) of the inning … which was caught by the pitcher Jake Faria. And thank God, because it was going straight to the pitcher’s head and his glove happened to be at the right position to catch it on fly. It’s cool when Aaron Judge is able to drive runs in, but, in that moment, you gotta be glad for Faria being able to protect himself. Kevin Cash decided that that would be it for the Rays starting pitcher and put in Andrew Kittredge.

The Rays went on to pitch to Luke Voit. The beefy first baseman made them pay by lining a double down the line to score two more. After intentionally walking Giancarlo Stanton, Cash put in Jalen Beeks, a pitcher they brought in for the Nathan Eovaldi trade with the Red Sox. With bases loaded, Neil Walker drew a walk to push another run across, and Miguel Andujar followed it up with a sac fly to make it 4-0.

Think the Yanks were done there? The ninth batter of the inning, Gary Sanchez, who had been struggling prior to tonight, got a hold of Beeks’ 92 mph fastball down the zone and drove it out of the park for a three-run home run. Boy, did Sanchez need that. He also had the best offensive night in many moons, and we’ll get into that later.

Severino’s night

(Getty Images)

I’ll count this one as a good night for Luis Severino. He had one dicey inning where he allowed two runs (could have been three if it weren’t for the Rays’ blunder decision to send Ji-Man Choi to home that resulted in an easy out) but there were a lot of positives.

Well, a big chunk of that is that he was missing bats. He got 17 whiffs (fourth-highest of the season) out of 97 pitches and got 7 strike outs in 5 innings. Eleven swings and misses were from his heater, which is always a positive. As it is true for many pitchers, Severino needs his fastball to be effective to have a successful outing. Remember when he had a terrible stretch mid-season? His fastball, despite having that velocity, wasn’t really missing bats.

Cause for concern? He did lose the command for a hot second in the third. He started the inning by allowing a double to deep right to Joey Wendle. On the next pitch, Sevy plunked Tommy Pham on the elbow. He followed it up by walking Ji-Man Choi on five pitches. Brandon Lowe, who had a 3-for-3 night, squared up on a fastball middle-middle for a two-RBI double. The Rays gave Yanks a free out by waving Choi home for an easy out. C.J. Cron lined out to Hechavarria for the second out and Kevin Kiermaier grounded out to end the frame. There were some hard-hit balls in the inning and Sevy ran into some luck to close it out, but you do have to consider that even the hot pitchers run into a bad short stretch once in awhile. The rest of the outing was good enough to give Severino some benefit of the doubt.

Even though Severino doesn’t look like his first-half dominant self, there are reasons to believe in him in a postseason start, especially given the turnaround he’s had in his previous seven starts. For the Yankees’ sake, let’s hope it’s a trend.

The rest of the game

The Yankees tacked on two more runs for rest of the night. In the fifth, Stanton led off with a frozen-rope double (112.2 mph) down the left field line. Walker’s ground out advanced him to third but Andujar failed to drive him in by popping out to catcher. Don’t worry, here comes Gary Sanchez. The Yankee catcher pulled a single to left for his fourth RBI of the night. All in all, Sanchez went 2-for-4 with a walk and 4 RBI’s, which is… definitely more like it. Believe it or not, it’s his first game in more than three months in which he drove in more than two runs. Given on the caliber of hitter he can be, that really tells you what kind of year he’s had. I’m not saying it will be, but hopefully, tonight can serve as some kind of turnaround for his season.

In the ninth, Miguel Andujar went deep against our old friend Vidal Nuno. That’s his 26th homer of the year and the kid just continues to rake. After tonight, the Yankee third baseman has a .298/.329/.525 line with 71 total extra base hits. He may win the Rookie of the Year, he may not, but looking at the bigger picture, the Yankee fans got to be excited about how his hitting prowess will develop over the years.

On the pitching side, Tommy Kahnle, Stephen Tarpley and Domingo German kept the Rays scoreless for the last 4 IP of the game. Not the names that Boone would use in close game situations, but he had to feel good after seeing what they offered tonight. It seems that, Tarpley in particular, has impressed Boone enough to consider him in the “conversation” for the postseason roster.

In the battle of the opener vs. opener strategy, the Yankees came out victorious in the first game of the series at the Trop. They not only won the game, but also the magic number for clinching the top Wild Card spot is down to four, and they knocked the Rays out of the playoff race. We will be watching the A’s vs. Mariners score, but for tonight, the Yankees did what they could control: win a ballgame.

(Joseph Garnett Jr./Getty Images)

The runs

The Yankees got on board against the second Rays pitcher Hunter Wood. With one out in the third, Andrew McCutchen got a fastball right down the middle and crushed it over the left field fence. Wood had fed him nothing but a steady diet of fastballs and he got a perfect mistake pitch. 1-0 Yankees.

93 up in the zone. Big league hitters can crush that.

Heading into the bottom of the fourth, the Yankees lifted Aaron Hicks for Brett Gardner in center field. Uh oh. The Yankees have Didi Gregorius out (for now) with an injury and, because we are nearing the postseason, any sign of injury is a much bigger deal than usual. It turned out that Hicks has a tight left hamstring, so let’s hope it’s precautionary.

In a better news, Gardner was involved in a two-run rally in the fifth. With two outs, Aaron Judge worked a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Gardner got a hold of Ryan Yarbrough sinker low in the zone for an RBI single to make it 2-0 Yanks. Giancarlo Stanton followed it up with a double to deep left, scoring Gardner from first to make it a two-run lead. Stanton did get thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple, but the damage was done.

The Bombers added another against Yarbrough in the seventh. With one out, McCutchen and Judge hit back-to-back doubles to put another one on board. This has been repeated in the website, but adding McCutchen has been such a good move for the lineup. We’ve known his pedigree of being a good hitter with the Pirates, but at the leadoff spot, McCutchen has seen tons of pitches. Tonight alone, he saw 34 of them in 5 plate appearances (6.8 pitches per PA), which is insane. Add his ability to see pitches with, well, Aaron Judge, who seems to be in full-count in any given at bat. The Yankees will hope that those two will be catalysts in elevating pitch counts in the postseason.

The pitchers

(Joseph Garnett Jr./Getty Images)

The Yankees used 8 pitchers total tonight, which, I guess, was expected using the opener strategy. Here is the list:

I have no idea how Stephen Tarpley will develop as a major league pitcher. He doesn’t have the high relief pitching prospect pedigree that guys like Chapman or Robertson did. However, he has chance to be useful. There’s always a spot in bullpen for guys that live off a sinker-slider combo. Since is ML debut earlier this month, when he allowed three earned runs against the Tigers, Tarpley has yet to allow another. Tonight’s outing may have been the crispest, as the lefty pitched a three-up, three-down inning with a strikeout.

How about the late inning guys? Green, Robertson, Chapman, Betances and Britton combined for 5 no-hit innings with 9 strikeouts. That’s the kind of collaborative effort that the Yankees hoped for when they assembled this group. I would imagine that they will run these arms frequently during the postseason (assuming they win the AL Wild Card game as well).

Regarding Aroldis Chapman – eye test-wise, his command looked better than that of his previous outings after coming off the DL. The problem is velocity. It’s weird to be concerned about a guy who topped out at 98.1 mph in an outing, but he did average at 97 mph tonight, which is a tick or two below his usual. He did get two swinging strikeouts on sliders, which is a positive for the Yanks. Earlier this season when Chapman was doing well, he was able to command his slider in the zone or to induce whiffs, regardless of how his fastball fared. It would be a boon for the back of the bullpen if he can jack his fastball velocity closer to 100 and be able to use his slider the way he did tonight.

Zach Britton looks really good. I think there’s a possibility that the Yankees assign closing jobs by committee in the playoffs, but Britton has made a solid case to pitch in more save situations. In 9 September appearances, Britton has allowed zero earned runs and zero walks. The further removed he is from the Achilles surgery, the better he looks.

Now, enjoy this catch by Gardner that saved two runs for the Yankees in the sixth.

What a mess of a home finale. An inexcusable loss, really. The Orioles had to get 27 outs from their bullpen and they still managed to hold the Yankees to four hits, including just two after the first inning. When the 2018 Yankees fall flat, they really fall flat. They lost Sunday’s series finale 6-3 and, as of this writing, they’re one game up on the Athletics in the loss column for homefield advantage in the Wild Card Game. Two, really, because the Yankees hold the tiebreaker. Oh, and by the way, Didi Gregorius is hurt. Potentially for the rest of the season. Baseball is bad, actually.

(Presswire)

Three Runs In The First
Couldn’t have asked for a better start Sunday afternoon. J.A. Happ struck out the side on 16 pitches in the top of the first inning, then Alex Cobb had to exit the bottom half with a blister after only four pitches. That stinks for him — Cobb had been nursing a blister the last few days and it acted up again — but it was great news for the Yankees (in theory). Nine innings against the O’s bullpen? Sign me up.

Reliever Mike Wright Jr. inherited a 2-2 count from Cobb, walked Andrew McCutchen, walked Giancarlo Stanton, and walked Luke Voit to load the bases with no outs. Bases loaded with no outs seems to be the Yankee’ kryptonite this year. Rather than waste a(nother) prime opportunity, the Yankees pushed across three runs. Gleyber Torres hit a sacrifice fly to right field, Miguel Andujar lined a single to center, and Gary Sanchez blooped a single to shallow right.

Gleyber’s sacrifice fly was the team’s MLB best 56th sac fly of the season. Homers and sac flies. Two things the Yankees do better than any other team. Andujar ambushed a first pitch middle-middle heater for his single. Sanchez went down below the zone to dig out a first pitch slider. When you’re struggling like Gary, you’ll take hits however you can get ’em:

The hardest hit ball of the inning? Adeiny Hechavarria’s inning-ending line out to right field (99.5 mph). Go figure. I thought it had a chance to slice away from John Andreoli and get down for another run-scoring hit, but no luck. Andreoli made a nice sliding catch. I’m not sure Adam Jones gets to that ball based on what I’ve seen from him in right field the last two weeks. Oh well. A three-zip lead after one inning works for me.

The rest of the game did not work for me. After tagging Wright for three runs on two hits and three walks in the first inning, the Yankees had three baserunners the rest of the game. Andujar doubled with two outs in the third, Aaron Hicks drew a pinch-hit walk with one out in the seventh, and Giancarlo Stanton ripped a leadoff single in the eighth. That’s it. Two hits and one walk in eight innings against the Orioles bullpen? How awful. What a sad showing by the offense. This game should’ve been over before the bullpen ever had a chance to screw it up.

J.A. Stands For Just Arduous
Good gravy what a grind for J.A. Happ. Happ needed 107 pitches to get through five innings against the Orioles. The 2018 Orioles. He allowed five hits and four went for extra bases (three doubles, one home run), yet he held the O’s to one run on Tim Beckham’s long solo homer in the second inning. Happ’s final line: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR on 107 pitches. It was a grind all afternoon. His pitches by inning: 16, 24, 28, 17, 22. Yeesh.

Things could’ve been worse for Happ too. Neil Walker and Sanchez teamed up to cut a runner down at the plate in the fifth inning. Breyvic Valera tripled to left with one out, and, on Jonathan Villar’s weak tapper to first, Walker threw home and Sanchez applied the tag. Sanchez then threw Villar out trying to steal second to end the inning. So the final two outs of Happ’s five-inning battle came on outs on the bases, not on batters he retired. His four-seamer was all over the place and both his two-seamer and changeup were non-factors:

That’s how you end up with 25 total foul balls, including 12 in two-strike counts. Much like Lance Lynn on Saturday, Happ probably doesn’t get through five innings against a better team. He had to battle for every out against a bad Orioles lineup Sunday. This was almost certainly just a blip and one of those days. They happen. I sure hope we see a much better performance next time out though, in what could be a tune-up start for the Wild Card Game.

Blown by the Bullpen
Aaron Boone’s obsession with A.J. Cole has gone too far. That was the case like three weeks ago. But on Sunday, with most of the top relievers down due to their recent workloads, Boone again went to Cole in a close game, and again Cole let things get out of hand He entered with the Yankees up two runs the sixth inning. Three batters later, they were down one run. Double, homer, homer. Cole has allowed 21 runs and 35 baserunners (and eight homers) in his last 14 appearances and 15 innings. Dude has to go. Brian Cashman has to take him away from Boone.

In case you’re wondering — and I’m sure many of you are — here’s what the bullpen workload situation looked like going into Sunday’s game:

Dellin Betances: Pitched each of the last three days.

Zach Britton: Pitched the last two days and three of the last five days.

Aroldis Chapman: Pitched two of the last three days and just came back from the 10-day DL.

Chad Green: Pitched two of the last three days and three of the last five days.

Jonathan Holder: Pitched three of the last four days.

David Robertson: Pitched two of the last three days.

Robertson was the only one of those guys who didn’t pitch Saturday and, presumably, he was being saved for the later innings. It’s silly, I know, but that’s what managers do. They save their best relievers for the later innings. Happ bowed out after five innings and someone was going to have to get outs in the sixth and seventh (and eighth?) innings. Boone went to Cole and it backfired spectacularly. Why not Sonny Gray or Luis Cessa or even Justus Sheffield? How many more times do we need to see Cole get bombed to know he shouldn’t pitch in close games?

Once Cole did his thing, Tommy Kahnle came in and made it worse. He allowed an insurance run on a double, a ground ball to move the runner up, and a sacrifice fly. Cessa pitched the final three innings and did allow an eighth inning insurance run on an infield single and a double, which makes him the Yankees’ most effective reliever of the day. The drop-off from the regular late-inning guys to everyone else is pretty drastic. Fortunately Cole and Kahnle won’t be on the postseason roster. To bad that doesn’t help the Yankees now.

(Presswire)

Leftovers
Andujar’s third inning double was his 43rd of the season, so he is one away from tying Joe DiMaggio’s franchise rookie doubles record. The AL rookie record is 47 by Fred Lynn. That is well within reach with seven games to play. Also, Andujar has 70 extra-base hits overall this season. That is the third most by a rookie in franchise history. DiMaggio had 88 in 1936 and Aaron Judge had 79 last season.

Two hits for Andujar (single, double) and one apiece for Sanchez and Stanton (singles). McCutchen, Stanton, Voit, and Hicks drew the walks. Again, the Yankees had five baserunners in the span of seven batters in the first inning and then three baserunners in the final eight innings against the worst team in the last 15 years. That is really pathetic.

Up Next
The final week of the 2018 regular season. The Yankees have four games in Tampa and three games in Boston. The starting pitchers for Monday night’s series opener at Tropicana Field are listed as TBD. In fact, the starting pitchers for the entire series are listed as TBD, for both teams. The Rays will probably use an opener Monday. (Actual starting pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell pitched the last two days, so it won’t be them.) Luis Severino is lined up to start Monday, though the Yankees could shift things around to get everyone situated for the Wild Card Game. We’ll see.

Postseason bound! Saturday evening the Yankees officially clinched a spot in the 2018 postseason with a 3-2 walk-off win against the Orioles in eleven innings. The Blue Jays beat the Rays earlier in the day to help the Yankees out. At worst, the Yankees will be the second wildcard team. The magic number for homefield advantage in the Wild Card Game is now seven.

(Mike Stobe/Getty)

Lynn Grinds Through Five Innings
Real Talk: Lance Lynn starts are just as painful as Sonny Gray stats, except Lynn is a tad better at getting outs. He labored through five innings against the Orioles — the 2018 Orioles — on Saturday and finished with two runs and nine baserunners allowed. Lynn also benefited from two runners being thrown out at the plate and another being caught stealing. So the O’s made a full inning’s worth of outs on the bases while Lynn was on the mound. Geez.

The Orioles scored their first run on a play that was equal parts bad, dumb, and weird. With runners on the corners and one out in the third, Cedric Mullins hit a weak tapper back out in front of the plate, and Lynn and Gary Sanchez did the “I got it you get it” thing. Sanchez picked it up, rushed the throw, and it sailed wide of first base. But! Gleyber Torres retrieved the ball in foul territory, threw home, and Steve Wilkerson was tagged out … by Lynn? By Lynn.

Huh. Sanchez committed a passed ball that put a runner on third with one out in the first place, then he threw wide of first for an error, and then he got caught watching the play and Lynn had to make the tag at the plate. Not your best inning, Gary. Anyway, a run scored on the play and the play at the plate was the second out. Lynn was able to get the third out and strand the tying run at second.

In the fifth, the Orioles scored in a more traditional way. Wilkerson doubled and Caleb Joseph singled to right, and Aaron Judge threw Wilkerson out at the plate. Poor guy was 0-for-2 going home on the afternoon. Two things about this play. One, Judge’s throw from right field was 96.9 mph, which is pretty nuts. I guess the wrist is feeling good. And two, replays showed Wilkerson never actually touched the plate. Sanchez blocked it with his foot. Cool.

Lynn’s final line: 5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K on 93 pitches. Five consecutive batters reached base against him in the fifth inning, yet Aaron Boone stuck with Lynn with the bases loaded and two outs, and he got the ground ball to third to escape the jam and keep the score tied 2-2. Lynn had eight swings and misses among his 93 pitches and three came in one at-bat, when Joseph swung and missed at the same inside two-seamer three times.

Was this Lynn’s last start of the year? He’s not going to be in the postseason rotation should the Yankees advance to the ALDS, so they may move him to the bullpen during the regular season’s final week in preparation for his postseason role. Normal rest would allow him to pitch Thursday, and then he could squeeze in one more tune-up outing Sunday. I guess we’ll see. Lynn was not all that good Saturday, but it could’ve been worse.

(Mike Stobe/Getty)

A Bit Of A Mess Against Hess
The Yankees put eight men on base in five innings and still had a weak showing offensively against rookie righty David Hess, who went into Saturday’s start with a 5.22 ERA (5.68 FIP) and 19 homers allowed in 91.1 innings this year. Hess did not have a single 1-2-3 inning yet somehow the Yankees only had two runners in scoring position in his five innings. Miguel Andujar had a one-out double in the fourth and Andrew McCutchen and Judge drew back-to-back one-out walks in the fifth.

As you might imagine given Hess’ numbers and their offensive tendencies, the Yankees scored their two runs against him with the long ball. Aaron Hicks short-porched a solo shot in the third inning and, two batters later, Luke Voit went opposite field and nearly over the home bullpen. It was one of those home runs that makes you think Voit is no fluke. Driving a fastball to the opposite field side of dead center with 109 mph exit velocity like this ain’t easy:

?

The first three batters of the third inning had base hits for the Yankees. Hicks homered, Andujar singled, Voit homered. Voit’s home run was a solo shot because Andujar was thrown out trying to stretch the single into a double. Replays made it look like Andujar thought the ball was clearly into the right-center field gap, but Adam Jones got to it quickly and made a good throw to second. By time Andujar picked up the pace, it was too late. Still love ya, Miggy.

Battle of the Bullpens
Both clubs went to the bullpen after getting five innings of two-run ball from their starting pitcher. First out of the bullpen for the Yankees: Chad Green. He was able to pitch around a leadoff double and a two-out walk in the sixth inning. Closer-turned-seventh inning guy Aroldis Chapman struck out two in a scoreless seventh. His fastball velocity was way down (96.1 mph average and 98.3 mph max), though, after a month-long layoff, I’m sure he’s still rebuilding some arm strength. Hopefully he gets back into the triple digits next week.

The Orioles, meanwhile, went to Miguel Castro. He tossed a scoreless sixth and seventh innings even though the Yankees had a runner on third with one out in the seventh. Gleyber Torres doubled to left and moved up on a passed ball, then was cut down at the plate on the contact play on McCutchen’s grounder to third. I hate the contact play so much. I mean, I get it, force them to make the perfect play. That’s why teams do it. I just hate it. Especially with Judge due up. And, even if they intentionally walk Judge, you’ve still got still Didi Gregorius at the plate with runners on the corners. Bah.

How important was this game? Important enough that Dellin Betances got the call for the third straight day. First time all season he’s pitched back-to-back-to-back days. Relatively low pitch counts Thursday (16) and Friday (11) helped make it possible. Dellin struck out the side on 19 pitches. He extended his AL record to 44 straight appearances with at least one strikeout and is five games behind Chapman (2014 Reds) for the all-time record. Probably not enough time to get there this season. Oh well.

Anyway, right around the time Tanner Scott struck out Hicks to end the eighth inning, Ken Giles got Tommy Pham to hit a tapper back to the mound in Toronto to close out the Blue Jays’ win over the Rays. That knocked the Yankees’ magic number for a postseason spot down to one. A win Saturday and they’re in! Aaron Hicks, do the damn thing:

Unseen in that video is Hicks fouling a pitch directly into his left ankle two pitches prior to the walk-off double. It looked pretty brutal. He was in obvious pain and stayed on the ground for a while before successfully lobbying to stay in the game. Then, two pitches later, he doubled into the corner (on the fourth slider of the at-bat) to send the Yankees to the postseason. Gregorius set that up with a leadoff single. Hot damn that was fun.

Leftovers
Man, what an escape job by Jonathan Holder in the tenth. He allowed a leadoff double and then a weird infield single where Voit got caught in no man’s land, and Holder couldn’t beat Jonathan Villar to the first base bag. A grounder right at Gregorius (infield in), an intentional walk to load the bases, a line drive at Voit, and a pop-up to Torres got Holder and the Yankees out of the inning. The O’s went 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position on the evening.

The Yankees did a whole bunch of nothing against Baltimore’s bullpen. One hit in five innings before Didi and Hicks teamed up for the game-winner. In fact, after Voit’s home run in the third inning, 26 of the next 31 batters the Yankees sent to the plate made outs. This was the opposite of Friday’s game. Friday night neither team could find a reliever who could get outs. On Saturday, everyone got outs.

Speaking of the bullpen: 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K combined from six relievers. Green, Chapman, Betances, Zach Britton, Holder, and Tommy Kahnle each threw a scoreless inning. Sonny Gray was warming up when Hicks walked it off in the 11th, so he was the next man in the game. Great work from the bullpen, especially Holder, who escaped that massive jam.

And finally, Hicks’ home run was his 26th home run of the season, extending his career high. It was also the 250th home run of the season for the Yankees, extending their franchise single-season record. Voit then hit their 251st homer of the year. Here are the six most homer happy teams in baseball history:

1997 Mariners: 264

2005 Rangers: 260

1996 Orioles: 257

2010 Blue Jays: 257

2016 Orioles: 253

2018 Yankees: 251 (and counting)

Can the Yankees hit 14 home run in their final eight regular season games to break the record? It’ll be tough since four of those eight games will be played in Tropicana Field, which isn’t exactly known for giving up home runs. A good five-homer game Sunday would really help the cause.

Up Next
The final home game of the 2018 regular season. Time flies, man. Veteran lefty J.A. Happ and veteran righty Alex Cobb are the scheduled starters for Sunday afternoon’s series finale. That’s a 1pm ET game.